As a soldier in the French army, Pierre Bourdieu took thousands of photographs documenting the abject conditions and suffering (as well as the resourcefulness, determination, grace, and dignity) of the Algerian people as they fought in the Algerian War (1954–1962). Picturing Algeria pairs 130 of Bourdieu’s photographs with key excerpts from his related writings, very few of which have been translated into English, and features a 2001 interview with Bourdieu (pdf). Read an excerpt from president Craig Calhoun’s foreword on the Columbia University Press Blog.

Also from Columbia University Press/SSRC: What Matters? Ethnographies of Value in a Not So Secular Age, edited by Courtney Bender and Ann Taves. The product of a series of SSRC workshops, this volume considers religious and secular categories and what they mean to those who seek valuable, ethical lives.

Two additional scholars have been recognized as innovative New Voices in social science: Haiyan Lee (by Prasenjit Duara), for her work in Chinese studies, and Adrienne LeBas (by Edmond J. Keller), for her research on opposition parties in Africa.

The Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (DPDF) has announced its 2012 cohort. Sixty students were selected in five emerging research fields: Ecological History, Gender Justice in the Era of Human Rights, Governing Global Production, Mediated Futures: Globalization and Historical Territories, and New Approaches to Transnationalism and Migratory Circulation.

Tenured humanities and social sciences faculty interested in creating or reinvigorating interdisciplinary fields of study through the training of the next generation of researchers are encouraged to enter the Faculty Field Competition for the 2013 DPDF research fields (deadline: October 3).